“Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni or Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni is an opera that was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838) and first performed in 1787. I used the second scene of the Act I in this essay. The work combines serious and comic actions that make it dramma giocoso. The opera belongs to the Classical period of music that existed from 1750 to 1820 according to experts. Opera’s instrumentation, according to description, includes woodwind, brass, percussion and stringed instruments. First group consist of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons (two pieces of each type). Brass instruments are presented by horns, trumpets and trombones. First and second violins, cellos, double basses and violas are in the “Stringed” group. Percussion instruments are represented by timpani, but I did not notice them in the chosen fragment. I also believe there was a cembalo or clavicymbal. It played when Don Giovanni and Donna Elvira recognized each other. The cembalo followed the start of their dialogue and highlighted couple’s emotional state. The tempo, meter, texture and form of the section depend up its part. The scene starts with the aria of Don Giovanni, Leporello and Donna Elvira. The section has accented duple meter and consists of two main parts, each repeated with variation (A-B-A’-B’) (Forney, Dell’antonio, and Machlis 178). Singers are followed by string …show more content…
The raise of wind instruments was one of the main features of this period of time. The opera’s piece showed how flutes, trumps and clarinets create a unique sound. These instruments almost replaced cembalo – in this work it was used only during recitatives. The Classical period also gave birth for string quartets – this type of bands still persists in modern music culture. The popularity of wind instruments also can be a result of the 18th century